Stefan Zweig (German Stefan Zweig - Stefan Zweig; November 28, 1881 - February 23, 1942) - Austrian critic, author of many short stories and fictionalized biographies.
Short story writer, novelist, poet, author literary biographies. Born in Vienna in the family of a wealthy Jewish merchant who owned a textile manufactory. After graduating from the University of Vienna, he went to London, Paris, traveled to Italy and Spain, visited India, Indochina, the USA, Cuba, Panama.
The solid state of the parents makes it possible to easily publish the first book - "Silver Strings" (1901). Zweig ventured to send the first collection of poems to his idol, the great Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. He sent back his book. Thus began a friendship that lasted until Rilke's death.
Zweig's short stories - "Amok", "Confusion of feelings", "Chess novel" - made the author's name popular all over the world. They amaze with drama, captivate with unusual plots and make you think about the vicissitudes. human destinies. Novels from modern life Zweig generally did not succeed. He understood this and rarely addressed the genre of the novel. These are "Impatience of the Heart" and "Fever of Transfiguration", printed in German for the first time forty years after the death of the author, in 1982.
Zweig often wrote at the intersection of document and art, creating fascinating biographies of Magellan, Mary Stuart, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Joseph Fouche, Balzac, Marie Antoinette. The writer has always masterfully worked with documents, discovering psychological background in any letter or memoir of an eyewitness. This may also include the following works"Three singers of their lives" (Casanova, Stendhal, Tolstoy), "Fight with the demon" (Hölderlin, Kleist, Nietzsche).
In the 20-30s. many Western writers have a growing interest in the USSR. They saw in this country the only real force that could resist fascism. Zweig came to the USSR in 1928 for the celebrations on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Leo Tolstoy. His attitude towards the Land of the Soviets could then be characterized as benevolently critical curiosity. But over the years, goodwill waned, and skepticism grew.
Last years Zweig's life - years of wandering He flees from Salzburg, choosing London as a temporary residence. Then went to latin america(1940), moved to the USA, but soon decided to settle in the small Brazilian city of Petropolis, located high in the mountains.
Biographical information
Creation
In 1910, Zweig wrote three volumes of Verharn (a biography and translations of his dramas and poetry). Zweig considered the translations of Verhaarn, as well as C. Baudelaire, P. Verlaine, A. Rimbaud, as his contribution to the spiritual community of European peoples dear to him.
In 1907 Zweig wrote a tragedy in verse, Thersites, which takes place near the walls of Troy; the idea of the play is a call for compassion for the humiliated and lonely. The premiere took place simultaneously in Dresden and Kassel.
In 1909, Zweig began to write a book about O. de Balzac, on which he worked for about 30 years. The book was never finished (published in 1946, after Zweig's death).
In 1917, Zweig published the anti-war drama Jeremiah based on the plot of the book of the prophet Jeremiah. The pathos of the play is the rejection of violence. Jeremiah predicts the fall of Jerusalem and calls to submit to Nebuchadnezzar, for "there is nothing more important than peace."
Scourge of vices, Jeremiah sees a way out in moral perfection. Exactly following the events set forth in the Bible, Zweig makes one digression reflecting his position: in the book, the blinded king of Judea, Tsidkiyahu, is taken captive in chains; in Zweig’s drama, he is solemnly brought to Babylon on a stretcher. "Jeremiah" - the first anti-war play on the European stage - was staged in 1918 in Zurich, in 1919 - in Vienna.
In the legend "The Third Dove" (1934) in symbolic form the pacifist denial of war and the idea of the impossibility of achieving peace are expressed: the third dove sent by Noah in search of land does not return, it always circles over the earth in futile attempts find a place where peace reigns.
Jewish theme
The Jewish motif is present in Zweig's anti-war short story "Mendel the second-hand book dealer" (1929). The quiet Jew from Galicia, Jacob Mendel, is obsessed with books. Its services are used by book lovers, including university professors.
Mendel is not interested in money, he does not know what is happening behind the walls of the Viennese cafe, where his desk is. During the war, he is arrested and charged with espionage after discovering that he sent a postcard to Paris to a bookstore owner.
Mendel is held for two years in the camp, he returns a broken man. "Mendel the second-hand book dealer" is the only story by Zweig in which the Jewish hero is a contemporary of the writer.
The theme of Jewry occupies Zweig in a philosophical aspect; he refers to her in the legend “Rachel murmurs against God” (1930) and the story dedicated to Sh. Ash “The Buried Lamp” (1937; Russian translation - Jer., 1989).
The third - "Three poets of their lives" (1927) - J. Casanova, Stendhal, L. Tolstoy. Zweig believes that their works are an expression of their own personality.
For many years Zweig painted the historical miniatures The Starry Clock of Mankind (1927, expanded ed. - 1943).
The book "Meetings with People, Books, Cities" (1937) contains essays about writers, about meetings with A. Toscanini, B. Walter, an analysis of the work of I. V. Goethe, B. Shaw, T. Mann and many others.
Posthumous edition
Zweig considered Europe his spiritual homeland, his autobiographical book Yesterday's World (1941; published 1944) is filled with longing for Vienna, the center of cultural life Europe.
Notification: The preliminary basis for this article was the articleS. Zweig is known as a master of biographies and short stories. He created and developed his own models of the small genre, different from generally accepted norms. The works of Zweig Stefan are real literature with elegant language, impeccable plot and images of characters, which impresses with its dynamics and demonstration of movement. human soul.
Writer's family
S. Zweig was born in Vienna on November 28, 1881 in a family of Jewish bankers. Stefan's grandfather, the father of Ida Brettauer's mother, was a Vatican banker, his father, Maurice Zweig, a millionaire, was engaged in the sale of textiles. The family was educated, the mother strictly raised her sons Alfred and Stefan. The spiritual basis of the family - theatrical performances, books, music. Despite numerous prohibitions, the boy from childhood valued personal freedom and achieved what he wanted.
The beginning of the creative path
He began to write early, the first articles appeared in the journals of Vienna and Berlin in 1900. After the gymnasium, he entered the university at the Faculty of Philology, where he studied Germanic and Romanistic studies. As a freshman, he published the collection Silver Strings. Composers M. Reder and R. Strauss wrote music on his poems. At the same time, the first short stories of the young author were published.
In 1904 he graduated from the university with a Ph.D. In the same year he published a collection of short stories "The Love of Erica Ewald" and translations of poems by E. Verharn, a Belgian poet. The next two years, Zweig travels a lot - India, Europe, Indochina, America. During the war he writes anti-war works.
Zweig Stefan tries to understand life in all its diversity. He collects notes, manuscripts, objects of great people, as if he wants to know the course of their thoughts. At the same time, he does not shy away from the "outcasts", the homeless, drug addicts, alcoholics, seeks to know their life. He reads a lot, gets to know famous people- O. Rodin, R. M. Rilke, E. Verharn. They occupy a special place in Zweig's life, influencing his work.
Personal life
In 1908, Stefan saw F. Winternitz, they exchanged glances, but on for a long time remember this meeting. Frederica was going through a difficult period, a break with her husband was close. A few years later, they met by chance and, without even talking, recognized each other. After a second chance meeting, Frederica wrote him a dignified letter in which a young woman expresses admiration for Zweig's translations of The Flowers of Life.
Before linking their lives, they met for a long time, Frederica understood Stefan, treated him warmly and carefully. He is calm and happy with her. Separated, they exchanged letters. sincere in his feelings, he tells his wife about his experiences, emerging depressions. The couple are happy. Having lived a long and happy 18 years, in 1938 they divorced. Stefan will marry his secretary Charlotte a year later, devoted to him to death both in direct and in figuratively.
State of soul
Doctors periodically send Zweig to rest from "overwork". But he cannot fully relax, he is known, he is recognized. It is difficult to judge what the doctors meant by "overwork", physical fatigue or mental, but the intervention of doctors was necessary. Zweig traveled a lot, Frederica had two children from her first marriage, and she could not always accompany her husband.
The writer's life is filled with meetings, travels. The 50th anniversary is approaching. Zweig Stefan feels discomfort, even fear. He writes to his friend V. Flyasher that he is not afraid of anything, even death, but he is afraid of illness and old age. He recalls the spiritual crisis of L. Tolstoy: "The wife has become a stranger, the children are indifferent." It is not known whether Zweig had real reasons for concern, but in his mind they were.
Emigration
Heating up in Europe. Unknown people searched Zweig's house. The writer went to London, his wife stayed in Salzburg. Perhaps because of the children, perhaps, she remained to solve some problems. But, judging by the letters, the relationship between them seemed warm. The writer became a citizen of Great Britain, wrote tirelessly, but was sad: Hitler was gaining strength, everything was collapsing, genocide loomed. In May, in Vienna, the writer's books were publicly burned at the stake.
On the background political environment personal drama developed. The writer was frightened by his age, he was full of worries about the future. In addition, emigration also affected. Despite outwardly favorable circumstances, it requires a lot of mental effort from a person. Zweig Stefan and in England, and in America, and in Brazil was enthusiastically received, treated kindly, his books were sold out. But I didn't want to write. In the midst of all these difficulties, a tragedy occurred with a divorce from Frederica.
AT last letters a deep spiritual crisis is felt: “The news from Europe is terrible”, “I will no longer see my home”, “I will be a temporary guest everywhere”, “the only thing left is to leave with dignity, quietly”. On February 22, 1942, he passed away after taking a large dose of sleeping pills. Charlotte passed away with him.
ahead of time
Zweig often created fascinating biographies at the intersection of art and document. He did not shape them into something completely artistic, or documentary, or true novels. Zweig's determining factor in compiling them was not only his own literary taste, but also general idea stemming from his view of history. The heroes of the writer were people who were ahead of their time, standing above the crowd and opposing it. From 1920 to 1928, the three-volume "Builders of the World" was published.
- The first volume of The Three Masters about Dickens, Balzac and Dostoyevsky was published in 1920. Such various writers in one book? best explanation there will be a quote from Stefan Zweig: the book shows them "as types of world icons who created in their novels a second reality along with the existing one."
- The author dedicated the second book, The Fight Against Madness, to Kleist, Nietzsche, Hölderlin (1925). Three geniuses, three destinies. Each of them was driven by some supernatural power into a cyclone of passion. Under the influence of their demon, they experienced a split, when chaos pulls forward, and the soul back to humanity. They end up in madness or suicide.
- In 1928 saw the light last volume"Three singers of their lives", which tells about Tolstoy, Stendhal and Casanova. The author did not accidentally combine these disparate names in one book. Each of them, no matter what he wrote, filled the works with his own "I". Therefore the names the greatest master French prose Stendhal, seeker and creator moral ideal The fat and brilliant adventurer Casanova stand side by side in this book.
human fate
Zweig's dramas "Comedian", "City by the Sea", "Legend of One Life" did not bring stage success. But him historical novels and the stories won world fame, they have been translated into many languages and reprinted several times. In the stories of Stefan Zweig, the most intimate human experiences are tactfully and yet frankly described. Zweig's short stories are captivating in their plots, full of tension and intensity.
The writer constantly convinces the reader that human heart defenseless, how incomprehensible are human destinies and what crimes or accomplishments passion pushes. These include unique, stylized medieval legends, psychological short stories "Street in moonlight”,“ Letter from a stranger ”,“ Fear ”,“ First experience ”. In Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman, the author describes a passion for gain that can kill all living things in a person.
In the same years, collections of short stories Starry Humanities (1927), Confusion of Feelings (1927), and Amok (1922) were published. In 1934, Zweig was forced to emigrate. He lived in the UK, USA, the choice of the writer fell on Brazil. Here the writer publishes a collection of essays and speeches Encounters with People (1937), a poignant novel about unrequited love"Impatience of the Heart" (1939) and "Magellan" (1938), memoirs "Yesterday's World" (1944).
history book
Separately, it must be said about the works of Zweig, in which the heroes are historical figures. In this case, the writer was alien to the conjecture of any facts. He masterfully worked with documents, in any testimony, letter, memoir, he sought out, first of all, the psychological background.
- The book "The Triumph and Tragedy of Erasmus of Rotterdam" includes essays and novels dedicated to scientists, travelers, thinkers Z. Freud, E. Rotterdam, A. Vespucci, Magellan.
- "Mary Stuart" by Stefan Zweig is the best biography of the tragically beautiful and rich life Scottish queen. It is still full of unresolved mysteries.
- In "Marie Antoinette" the author spoke about tragic fate queen, executed by decision of the Revolutionary Tribunal. This is one of the most truthful and thoughtful novels. Marie Antoinette was pampered by the attention and admiration of the courtiers, her life is a series of pleasures. She had no idea that outside opera house there is a world steeped in hatred and poverty, which threw her under the knife of the guillotine.
As readers write in their reviews of Stefan Zweig, all his works are incomparable. Each has its own shade, taste, life. Even read-reread biographies are like an insight, like a revelation. It's like reading about a completely different person. There is something fantastic in the writing style of this writer - you feel the power of the word over you and drown in its all-consuming power. You understand that his works are fiction, but you clearly see the hero, his feelings and thoughts.
Biography
Origin. First steps in literature
Stefan was born in Vienna to Moritz Zweig, a wealthy Jewish merchant who owned a textile manufactory. Little is known about the childhood and adolescence of the future writer: he himself spoke rather sparingly about this, emphasizing that at the beginning of his life everything was exactly the same as that of other European intellectuals at the turn of the century. After graduating from high school in 1900, Zweig entered the University of Vienna. Already during his studies, at his own expense, he published the first collection of his poems ("Silver Strings" (Silberne Saiten), 1901). The poems were written under the influence of Hofmannsthal, as well as Rilke, to whom Zweig ventured to send his collection. Rilke sent back his book. Thus began a friendship that lasted until Rilke's death in 1926.
After graduating from the University of Vienna and receiving his doctorate, Zweig went to London and Paris (1905), then traveled to Italy and Spain (1906), visited India, Indochina, the USA, Cuba, Panama (1912). The last years of the First World War he lived in Switzerland (1917-1918), and after the war he settled near Salzburg.
During the First World War, Zweig published a penetrating essay on Romain Rolland, calling him "the conscience of Europe." He also wrote essays on Maxim Gorky, Thomas Mann, Marcel Proust and Joseph Roth.
Novels by Zweig. Novels and biographies
Zweig's short stories - "Amok" (Amok, 1922), "Confusion of feelings" (Verwirrung der Gefühle, 1927), "Mendel the bookseller" (1929), "Chess novel" (Schachnovelle, finished in 1941), as well as a cycle of historical short stories " star clock humanity” (Sternstunden der Menschheit, 1927) - made the author's name popular all over the world. The novels amaze with drama, captivate with unusual plots and make you think about the vicissitudes of human destinies. Zweig never ceases to convince of how defenseless the human heart is, to what feats, and sometimes crimes, passion pushes a person.
Zweig created and developed in detail his own model of the novel, different from the works of generally recognized masters. short genre. The events of most of his stories take place during travel, sometimes exciting, sometimes tiring, and sometimes truly dangerous. Everything that happens to the heroes lies in wait for them on the way, during short stops or short breaks from the road. Dramas play out in a matter of hours, but these are always the main moments of life, when personality is tested, the ability to self-sacrifice is tested. The core of each Zweig story is a monologue that the hero utters in a state of passion.
Zweig's short stories are a kind of summaries of novels. But when he tried to turn a single event into a spatial narrative, his novels turned into long, wordy short stories. Therefore, Zweig's novels from modern life generally did not work out. He understood this and rarely addressed the genre of the novel. These are “Impatience of the Heart” (Ungeduld des Herzens, 1938) and “Fever of Transformation” (Rauch der Verwandlung) - unfinished novel, published for the first time in German forty years after the death of the author, in 1982 (in Russian. translated by Christina Hoflener, 1985).
Zweig often wrote at the intersection of document and art, creating fascinating biographies of Magellan, Mary Stuart, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Joseph Fouche, Balzac (1940).
In historical novels, it is customary to speculate historical fact force creative fantasy. Where there were not enough documents, the artist's imagination began to work there. Zweig, on the contrary, has always masterfully worked with documents, discovering psychological background in any letter or memoir of an eyewitness.
"Mary Stuart" (1935), "The Triumph and Tragedy of Erasmus of Rotterdam" (1934)
The mysterious personality and fate of Mary Stuart, Queen of France, England and Scotland, will always excite the imagination of posterity. The author designated the genre of the book "Maria Stuart" (Maria Stuart, 1935) as a novelized biography. The Scottish and English queens never saw each other. This is what Elizabeth wanted. But between them for a quarter of a century there was an intense correspondence, outwardly correct, but full of hidden jabs and biting insults. The letters form the basis of the book. Zweig also used the testimonies of friends and foes of both queens to make an impartial verdict on both.
Having completed the biography of the beheaded queen, Zweig indulges in final reflections: “Morality and politics have their own different paths. Events are evaluated differently, depending on whether we judge them from the point of view of humanity or from the point of view of political advantages. For a writer in the early 30s. the conflict of morality and politics is no longer speculative, but quite tangible in nature, concerning him personally.
The hero of the book "The Triumph and Tragedy of Erasmus of Rotterdam" (Triumph und Tragik des Erasmus von Rotterdam, 1934) is especially close to Zweig. He was impressed that Erasmus considered himself a citizen of the world. Erasmus refused the most prestigious positions in the church and secular fields. A stranger to vain passions and vanity, he used all his efforts to achieve independence. With his books, he conquered the era, for he was able to say a clarifying word on all the painful problems of his time.
Erasmus condemned fanatics and scholastics, bribe takers and ignoramuses. But those who kindled discord between people were especially hated by him. However, due to the monstrous religious strife, Germany, and after it the whole of Europe, were stained with blood.
According to Zweig's concept, the tragedy of Erasmus is that he failed to prevent these massacres. Zweig believed for a long time that the first World War- a tragic misunderstanding that she would stay last war in the world. He believed that, together with Romain Rolland and Henri Barbusse, together with the German anti-fascist writers, he would be able to prevent a new world massacre. But in those days when he was working on a book about Erasmus, the Nazis ransacked his house. This was the first alarm.
Last years. "Yesterday's World"
The position of Zweig at the end of the 30s. was between the hammer and sickle on one side and the swastika on the other. That is why his final memoir, Yesterday's World, is so elegiac: the former world has disappeared, and in the present world he felt like a stranger everywhere. His last years are years of wanderings. He flees from Salzburg, choosing London as a temporary residence (1935). But even in England he did not feel protected. He went to Latin America (1940), then moved to the USA (1941), but soon decided to settle in the small Brazilian city of Petropolis, located high in the mountains.
February 22, 1942 Zweig passed away with his wife, having taken a large dose of sleeping pills.
Erich Maria Remarque wrote about this tragic episode in the novel “Shadows in Paradise”: “If that evening in Brazil, when Stefan Zweig and his wife committed suicide, they could pour out their souls to someone at least by phone, misfortunes might not have happened. But Zweig found himself in a foreign land among strangers.
Stefan Zweig is an Austrian writer, critic, biographer and novelist. Maintained friendly relations with many famous contemporaries: Bertolt Brecht, Richard Strauss, Maxim Gorky, HG Wells, Hermann Hesse, Thomas Mann, Sigmund Freud and others.
Novels by Stefan Zweig
The writer managed to create and bring to life his own model of the short story, which differed from the generally accepted works of the masters of the word of that time. As a rule, his stories were based on dangerous and exciting adventures, the climactic events unfolding during a halt or small stops along the way. Drama was not long in coming, at these moments fate tested personal qualities heroes. The heart of any Zweig story was a monologue.
The best books by Stefan Zweig online:
- "Confusion of feelings";
- "Mendel book dealer".
All the works of the author from the first pages fascinate with their plot and drama, make you think about eternal problems and overestimate the importance of human destinies. Zweig does not get tired of proving how defenseless a person can be.
Creating biographies and historical novels, Zweig often resorted to the help of archives and documents. Where facts were lacking, fantasy began to work. Following the chronology of events, carefully working out every detail , the writer never ceased to please readers with something new, to come up with interesting psychological background.
Short biography of Stefan Zweig
The future novelist was born in the family of the owner of a Viennese textile factory in 1881. about children and youthful years Zweig knows little information, the writer himself never attached special importance to this life period. In 1900, after graduating from high school, he entered the university, where he devoted himself to the study of philosophy.
During his studies, the first collection of poems by the author "Silver Strings" was published. Zweig sent his poems to Rilke, after which a strong friendship. After graduating from the university, the writer goes on a trip to Europe, Asia and America. During the war he lived in Switzerland.
In 1920 he married, but the marriage lasted only until 1938. A year later, Zweig remarried. After Hitler came to power, the family moved to New York, and later to Rio de Janeiro. The events of World War II caused depression and disappointment. In 1942, Zweig and his wife committed suicide by taking a lethal dose of medicine.
